ASSAYE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—As to the loss at Assaye, I submit the following extract from Colonel Biddulph's excellent book, "The Nineteenth and their Times," recently published:—
"Long after his victorious career was ended, he (Wellington) spoke of Assaye as the bloodiest battle for the number engaged that he ever saw. Of the ten officers forming the General's staff eight were wounded or bad their horses shot. The 74th and the picquet battalion were almost annihilated ; one picquet half- company alone had twenty-one killed, twenty-two wounded, and three missing. The 74th lost four hundred and one of all ranks, killed and wounded." (p. 147.) In connection with this passage may be read the opinion of Sir Thomas Munro, that the loss was inflicted by the artillery and the cavalry of the Mahrattas,—not by their infantry disciplined according to European models :— " At the battle of Assaye, the severest that took place in the course of the war, I do not recollect among all our killed and wounded officers one that suffered from a musket-ball or bayonet —a convincing proof that the Mahratta infantry made very little serious impression Scindia, by abandoning the old system of Mahratta warfare disabled himself from maintaining a contest with us, for he reduced the war to a war of battles and sieges instead of one of marches and convoys." —(Gleig's Life, Vol. III., p. 193.) lifutatis mutandis, Munro's remarks suggest a somewhat analogous reflection on the Boer innovations now on their
trial.—I am, Sir, &c., W. H. GLENN'S% .13 Suffolk Square, Chelteniann.
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